The Essex landscape gently undulates, with the hilliest country is in the north and west, near the Herfordshire and Cambridgeshire borders. On the marshes of Essex, for example, there is a genuine feeling of solitude that is hard to find anywhere else in southern England. Colchester, the oldest recorded town in Britain, is featured in one of the walks, and there are routes through Epping and Hatfield forests, which contain some of the finest surviving fragments of England's medieval forests. The Essex-Suffolk border is Constable Country, and walkers are guided through Dedham Vale, passing Flatford Mill and Willy Lott's Cottage.
Join John Rogers as he ventures out into an uncharted London like a redbrick Indiana Jones in search of the lost meaning of our metropolitan existence. Nursing two reluctant knees and a can of Stella, he perambulates through the seasons seeking adventure in our city’s remote and forgotten reaches.
A guidebook to 25 day walks in Essex and a 155km (96 mile) long-distance route that follows the Essex Way from the fringes of London in the west to the port of Harwich in the east. With routes in the guidebook covering the whole of the county there’s something for beginner and experienced walkers alike. The day walks are all circular, except for 3 linear routes, ranging from 7–29km (5–18 miles) in length and walkable in between 2 and 8 hours. The cross-Essex route consists of 11 stages of 8–23km (5–15 miles) in length, which take between 3 and 6 hours to walk. 1:50,000 OS maps included for each walk Transport, refreshment and accommodation information given for each stage of the cross-Essex walk Information given on local history, geology and wildlife Local points of interest are featured including Epping Forest, Constable’s Dedham Vale, Audley End Easy access from London, Chelmsford and Colchester
The first volume of the acclaimed Time Out Country Walks has been fully revised and updated, featuring 52 walks within easy reach of London, all starting and ending at railway stations. The walks take travelers through the glorious countryside, all on scenic footpaths with a minimum of road-walking. Recommendations for the best pubs and cafés are included, while easy-to-use maps and cut-off suggestions help those who choose to shorten the walk.
A series of walks along the routes of eight lost rivers in London, with richly detailed anecdotes outlining the history of each river's route, origins and decline. When we think of London's river, the vast thoroughfare of the Thames immediately springs to mind. But this ancient city was built around other rivers too – and traces of these still remain, for those who know where to look. London's Lost Rivers takes the reader on a series of walks along the routes of eight lost rivers, combining directions for walkers with richly detailed anecdotes outlining the history of each river's route, origins and decline. Tom Bolton reveals a secret network that spreads across the city, from picturesque Hampstead in the North to the hidden suburbs of South London, and runs beneath some of London's most iconic and historic sites. These London pasts are brought to vivid life, populated by characters both famous and infamous, including politicians, forgers, actors, architects, athletes, monarchs and murderers. Evocative, witty and engaging, London's Lost Rivers invites both visitors to the city and lifelong Londoners to explore another side of London and its rich history, whether on foot or in the imagination.
NOW AN APPLE TV+ SERIES A Washington Post Notable Work of Fiction * Winner of the British Book Awards Fiction Book of the Year and overall Book of the Year *A Kirkus Reviews Best Book of The Year * Waterstones Book of the Year * Costa Book Award Finalist “A novel of almost insolent ambition—lush and fantastical, a wild Eden behind a garden gate...it’s part ghost story and part natural history lesson, part romance and part feminist parable. I found it so transporting that 48 hours after completing it, I was still resentful to be back home.” —New York Times London, 1893. When Cora Seaborne’s brilliant, domineering husband dies, she steps into her new life as a widow with as much relief as sadness: her marriage was an unhappy one, and she never suited the role of society wife. Seeking refuge in fresh air and open space, she leaves the metropolis for coastal Essex, accompanied by her inquisitive and obsessive eleven-year-old son, Francis, and the boy’s nanny, Martha, her fiercely protective friend. Once there, they hear rumors that after nearly three hundred years, the mythical Essex Serpent, a fearsome creature that once roamed the marshes, has returned. When a young man is mysteriously killed on New Year’s Eve, the community’s dread transforms to terror. Cora, a keen amateur naturalist with no patience for religion or superstition, is immediately enthralled, certain that what locals think is a magical sea beast may be a previously undiscovered species. Eager to investigate, she is introduced to parish vicar William Ransome, who is equally suspicious of the rumors but for different reasons: a man of faith, he is convinced the alarming reports are caused by moral panic, a flight from the correct and righteous path. As Cora and William attempt to discover the truth about the Essex Serpent’s existence, these seeming opposites find themselves inexorably drawn together in an intense relationship that will change both of them in ways entirely unexpected. And as they search for answers, Cora’s London past follows her to the coast, with striking consequences. Told with exquisite grace and intelligence, The Essex Serpent masterfully explores questions of science and religion, skepticism and faith, but it is most of all a celebration of love, and the many different—and surprising—guises it can take.
"The book is like a dream you want to last forever" (Roberta Silman, The New York Times Book Review), now with a gorgeous new cover by the famed designer Peter Mendelsund A masterwork of W. G. Sebald, now with a gorgeous new cover by the famed designer Peter Mendelsund The Rings of Saturn—with its curious archive of photographs—records a walking tour of the eastern coast of England. A few of the things which cross the path and mind of its narrator (who both is and is not Sebald) are lonely eccentrics, Sir Thomas Browne’s skull, a matchstick model of the Temple of Jerusalem, recession-hit seaside towns, wooded hills, Joseph Conrad, Rembrandt’s "Anatomy Lesson," the natural history of the herring, the massive bombings of WWII, the dowager Empress Tzu Hsi, and the silk industry in Norwich. W.G. Sebald’s The Emigrants (New Directions, 1996) was hailed by Susan Sontag as an "astonishing masterpiece perfect while being unlike any book one has ever read." It was "one of the great books of the last few years," noted Michael Ondaatje, who now acclaims The Rings of Saturn "an even more inventive work than its predecessor, The Emigrants."
This fascinating selection of photographs traces some of the many ways in which Saffron Walden and its surrounding villages have changed over the last century.
